Textile Art

Season 3 • Episode 9

Chickasaw Culture Keepers

Tyra Shackleford is a Chickasaw textile artist who specializes in techniques predating European contact, such as finger weaving, twining and sprang. She began finger weaving at the age of 12 in order to make a belt to match her dress, and she never stopped creating belts after that. She describes how ancient Chickasaws used materials like stinging nettle and mulberry bark to create works of art, while she utilizes acrylic yarn and makes modern clothing items and accessories. Shackleford is dedicated to preserving the ancient techniques, but she says that her ancestors were innovators who embraced new technology, so she believes in letting the art evolve. When she was starting out, she was unable to learn from a Chickasaw and had to find a Seminole elder who could teach her. Now she is determined that young Chickasaws should never have to face that same problem and can learn from her how to create beautiful textile artworks using the traditional methods.

EPISODES

3m 30s

Textile Art

EPISODES

Pottery

Stickball Sticks

Beading

Regalia

Metalsmithing

Shell Carving

Weaving

Horticulture

Baskets

Traditional Foods

Quilting

Flutes

Beaded Collars

Drum Making

Storytelling

Bow Making

Brent Greenwood Art

Beaded Jewelry

Flint Knapping

Stomp Dancing

Beadwork

Turkey Calls

Traditional Stories: How Day and Night Were Divided

Woodturning

Bead Artisan

Textile Art

Quilt Making

Jewelry

The Legacy of Bow Making

Bead Artistry

Painting

Woven Mats

Metalworking

Photography

Pashofa

Deer Toe Shakers

Stickball Sticks

Shell Carving

Medicine Bags

Natural Dyes

Twinning

Bladesmithing

Fish Nets

Porcupine Quillwork

Pottery Burnishing

Shell Carving

Duck Decoys

Traditional Arrows

Fine Gourd Art

Traditional Flutes

Turtle Pottery

Turtle Shell Shakers

Pucker Toe Moccasins

Chunkey

Tattoos and War Paint

Leggings and Breechcloths

Hide Brain Tanning

River Cane Harvesting, Splitting and Peeling

Stories of Kullihoma

History of Beads